Blog 159 – All That Glitters Is Not Gold
Yesterday on my job in Wyoming the sun was shining brightly and in the gravel access road on the worksite a flash caught my eye. I bent over and picked up what looked like a gold nugget. Perhaps it is fool’s gold but it was pretty so I put it in my pocket. I know that all that glitters is not gold.

A line from a song comes to me, “Precious, more precious than gold.” But what is more precious than gold? To answer that question I would like to quote for you the first verse and chorus of a song written and sung by Israel Kamakowiwo’wo called In This Life. His beautiful Hawaiian voice is most widely known for his ukulele accompanied version of Over The Rainbow but his original composition is even lovelier to me:
In This Life
For all I was blessed with in this life
There was an emptiness in me
I was imprisoned by the power of gold
With one kind touch you set me free.

Let the world stop turning, let the sun stop burning,
Let them tell me love’s not worth going through,
If it all falls apart I will know deep in my heart
That the only dream that mattered had come true.
In this life I was loved by you.

Some may think a love like that is Fool’s Gold, all sparkle but no substance but I believe love is the only real treasure. “We have this treasure in earthen vessels that there be no confusion that it is Divine and it is excellent.” I took some liberties with the ordering of words in that verse but only to make its true meaning more clear.

God is everyone and everything but if you must use one word to describe his essential essence that word would be love. A love song from my youth says it best, “Love is all around me. It’s every where I go. If you really love me. Come on and let it show.” And God does in every breath you take, every beat of your heart, every drop of rain or unique snow flake carries but one message, “I am in love with you.”

Your friend and fellow traveler, carrying the message.
David White